According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple may be considering a bid for Hulu, which put itself on the market several weeks ago. So far, Hulu hasn’t managed to attract many bidders, but rumor has it that a number of large companies including Amazon and Microsoft are interested in purchasing the company.

Aside from the company behind it, the newsworthy part of this is that Apple is the first company rumored to be preparing an actual bid to buy Hulu. Hulu is currently owned by a consortium of media companies, including Disney, Comcast, NBC Universal, and News Corp, some of the companies that have been instrumental in providing licensing rights for content streaming on Hulu.

In order to sweeten the pot, those companies have offered bidders extended rights to the licensing and content agreements that Hulu already has, so the company doesn’t change hands and immediately have to renegotiate all of its content agreements.

There may be other buyers waiting in the wings however, as part of the reason the company went up for sale initially was because the equity firm that manages holdings in Hulu said there was a suitor ready to make an offer at that time. Whether they’ve backed out and Apple has stepped in or that suitor has been Apple all along is unclear, but if it is Apple, Hulu would make an interesting jewel in its media crown.

Apple currently doesn’t offer much in the way of streaming services that it controls: video rentals from iTunes are the extent of its product offerings, and in many cases consumers who do use iTunes for video prefer to buy and download than rent and stream. Apple has long avoided subscription-based content, and the company usually avoids large acquisitions, but it would be an attractive buy for Apple, which is clearly making a play for streaming, web-based entertainment and media.

Reader Comments

Great, Hulu’s going to turn into another one of those great products that Apple decides to overprice the hell out of. I can already see theme dumping the subscription for a $1 per episode fee.

Seljo Myeri

that would be the end of Hulu for me. I was considering the $8 subscription with Netflix’s recent fee change. I may hold off now until this is settled. I like the free ad-based service, though. Just don’t stop in the middle of an episode…you have to re-watch most of the ads again.